The Legend of Drunken Master
Starring Jackie Chan, Anita Mui, Lung Ti
Written by Edward Tang, Man-Ming Tong, Kai-Chi Yun
Directed by Chia-Liang Liu


Jackie Chan films are like potato chips. We know they are full of bad things, but man, do they taste good. They key is they serve their purpose: the purpose of instant, fast-paced gratification. There are no real benefits from eating potato chips other than they taste good and help you gain weight (if that is what you are trying to do) -- and the same can be said of a Jackie Chan film as well. We know they are essentially well choreographed stunt shows, but we always watch to see what new flavour he introduces next. Just like chips, the new flavour always gets us every time.

With The Legend of Drunken Master, my taste buds were absolutely blown away. This is Jackie Chan’s best piece of work in my mind. The action sequences, especially one where he takes on an army of thugs with axes in a tiny restaurant and one where he actually jumps into a flaming pit of ash, is simply put -- awesome! The Legend of Drunken Master contains some of the most difficult and creative fight sequences I have ever seen Jackie do. The Legend of Drunken Master tells the story of martial arts and Asian legend, Wong Fei-hung, in a kind of prequel story where he is still discovering his place in the world. Basically just an excuse for Jackie Chan to go nuts and kick and punch up a storm.

Had the film been a Hollywood production, it probably would have included Chris Tucker or Owen Wilson and some cheap buddy plot -- but thank God that The Legend of Drunken Master was purely an HK production, meaning the film now contains stunts that look like people really got hurt performing them and fight sequences that last at least 12-15 minutes at a time without dialogue interruption -- which is extremely rare to see in North American productions.

If you only watch one Jackie Chan film -- see this one. He is at his action/comedic best here. So pick up a bag of “The Legend of Drunken Master” and pig out on some fast, fun, unique, and fiercely creative action.


THE RUNDOWN:

The Good: Highly creative and fierce martial arts sequences.

The Bad: As always, low on story, but you already know that.

The Law: This is Jackie Chan’s best work.